Proatheris superciliaris (PETERS, 1855)
Can you confirm these amateur observations of Proatheris superciliaris?
Proatheris superciliaris
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| Higher Taxa | Viperidae, Viperinae, Colubroidea, Caenophidia, Alethinophidia, Serpentes, Squamata (snakes) |
| Subspecies | |
| Common Names | E: Lowland Swamp Viper, Domino-bellied viper, Lowland viper |
| Synonym | Vipera superciliaris PETERS 1855 Vipera superciliaris — PFEFER 1893: 89 Bitis superciliaris — KRAMER 1961 Vipera superciliaris — SWEENEY 1963 Atheris superciliaris — MARX & RABB 1965 Atheris superciliaris — STEVENS 1973 Atheris superciliaris — BROADLEY & HOWELL 1991: 23 Atheris superciliaris — WELCH 1994: 21 Proatheris superciliaris — BROADLEY 1996 Proatheris superciliaris — JOGER & COURAGE 1999 Proatheris superciliaris — MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURÉ 1999: 387 Proatheris superciliaris — DOBIEY & VOGEL 2007 Proatheris superciliaris — WALLACH et al. 2014: 578 Proatheris superciliaris — SPAWLS et al. 2018: 596 |
| Distribution | Mozambique (from Beira north to Quissanga, up Zambezi River to Lake Malawi), Malawi, Tanzania Type locality: Mainland opposite Querimba Island, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. |
| Reproduction | ovovivparous |
| Types | Holotype: ZMB 4121, according to Bauer et al. 1995: 81 |
| Diagnosis | Diagnosis (genus): Dorsal head shields small and keeled except for a pair of large rugose supraocular shields (Figure 5a); nasals in broad contact with rostral (i.e. no suprarostral shields: Figure 1a); no duplication of transverse dorsal scale rows; palatine-pterygoid articulation an interlocking joint (Figure 4e); intrapulmonary bronchus long; subcaudals paired.” (Broadley 1996) |
| Comment | Venomous! Type species: Vipera superciliaris PETERS 1855 is the type species of the genus Proatheris BROADLEY 1996. Phylogenetics: for a recent phylogeny of this and related Viperinae see Šmíd & Tolley 2019. |
| Etymology | Apparently named after the scale above the eye, the superciliary, from Latin cilium = eyelash or eyelid. The genus was named after Pro- (Latin = before) and “atheris”, because this seems to be the plesiomorphic sister species to the rest of the Atherini. |
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